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Police will soon patrol TTC stations

On the day detectives named a suspect in last week's shooting on a crowded subway platform, Toronto police announced that three dozen officers will be walking the beat in TTC stations by May.

The deployment "will make the transit system safer and the city safer," police Chief Bill Blair said last night. "The responsibility for policing in this city is mine. I'm putting police officers where the public is, to help reduce crime and deal with crime when it occurs."

Curt John, 21, is a suspect in the Osgoode subway shooting. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

The 38 officers will join traffic services in May and will patrol subways, buses, streetcars and their environs, enforcing rules of the road and keeping the peace.

At a news conference yesterday, detectives said Curt John, 21, of no fixed address, is alleged to have fired three shots Jan. 22 onto a busy subway platform just after the rush of morning commuters. The suspect, who is wanted for other charges, including accessory to a murder, is accused of sending a 19-year-old victim to hospital with bullet wounds in his thigh and abdomen.

This was the second shooting to occur on TTC property in the past year and only the second in TTC history. Last spring a young woman was shot in the leg on a packed subway car as it headed into Spadina subway station. Still, the TTC is no stranger to violence.

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In 2007, a 21-year-old man was fatally stabbed at Victoria Park station, the same place where a fare collector was killed in 1995.

Last summer, the TTC reported laying 19 per cent more criminal charges in 2007 than the year before. The 3,872 crimes reported were a 13 per cent rise over 2006 and a 44.6 per cent rise over 2003. Crime statistics for 2008 are not available.

Higher ridership and more transit police and security cameras were reasons for higher crime figures, spokespeople said. They said assaults, including an average of one a day on operators, and theft – particularly of electronic devices – accounted for many incidents.

TTC has its own special constables who carry batons and pepper foam, but no firearms. They have the authority to issue tickets and make arrests. They meet training standards set out by the Toronto Police Services Board and recently there has been debate about whether they should be granted additional powers, such as being licensed to carry Tasers.

Prior to yesterday's police announcement, the TTC said it would increase its force of special constables from 103 to 176 by 2011.

TTC chair Adam Giambrone said he welcomes the new police presence to protect transit riders, but said the new officers won't be replacing any special constables.

"I can't say categorically, but there seems to be no will by the police to reduce the number of special constables we have today," he said, cautioning that preventing all violence is impossible.

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"Even with 1,000 (police officers) in the system, they would not be in every subway car," he said. "A security force does help but the police aren't on every corner and they can never be."

The suspect named in last week's shooting is believed to be hiding out somewhere in Toronto, detectives said.

They said the suspect and victim travelled together on a Jane St. bus to Downsview station before taking the subway south to Osgoode, where the two had an altercation before the bullets flew.

John is also wanted on a Canada-wide warrant in the shooting death of Dominic Shearer-Hanomansingh, the city's 37th homicide victim last year, who was killed handing out flyers in Keelesdale Park.

John's cousin, Jimmy John, is in custody charged with Shearer-Hanomansingh's murder. Police allege that Curt John not only helped dispose of evidence after that crime, but allowed Jimmy to use his name to obtain medical treatment after the incident.

A few months after Shearer-Hanomansingh was gunned down, police discovered he was responsible for the shooting death of Justin Brunet, the city's 29th homicide of 2008.

John goes by aliases including Curt Ketichnel John, Quashie, Royston and Shruffles, according to the RCMP's website. He is also wanted for a Nov. 27 robbery and assault, and for robbery and forcible confinement following an incident earlier this week.

On Tuesday night, police said two men approached a person at the Jane-Finch Mall asking for a lift to an address near Niska Rd. and Tobermory Drive.

Once there, police said, the duo pistol-whipped the victim and stole his car, a silver 2004 Ford Escape with licence plate BBZP 445.

"This individual is extremely dangerous," Insp. Mario Di Tommaso said yesterday. "Members of the public should not approach him."

John is black, around 6 feet and 180 pounds with a "chinstrap beard" and an earring in his left ear.

Police urged him to turn himself in "before someone else gets hurt" and cautioned others that harbouring a fugitive is a criminal offence.

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